Hope For Today

Dear Friends, ME Awareness Week Last week (6th - 12th May) was ME Awareness Week and I had planned to write a blog post about ME from a personal perspective. However, as we know, life doesn't always go according to plan and I wasn't able to blog last week. At first I felt frustrated at missing out on doing this, but then, I believe, God reasoned with me and so I came to see that there is no reason why I cannot share about it a week later. I believe that having Awareness Weeks for various physical and mental illnesses are incredibly important. As a society we need to be more aware of what others face, we need to understand better their struggles and learn how we can support them and show compassion for them in their difficulties. Whilst awareness weeks are good, let's not stop talking about these things when the week is over, but let's continue to talk and be open. It's not always easy to share because it means allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. But when ...

Dear Friends, I learned a new word last week and that word is 'Flawsome'!  One evening last week, my husband, brother-in-law and I attended the 'Honesty Over Silence' Tour run by Kintsugi Hope. Kintsugi Hope was founded by Patrick Regan and Diane Regan and the tour is based on Patrick's book with the same title. "'Kintsugi' is a Japanese technique for repairing pottery with seams of gold. The word means “golden joinery” in Japanese. This repairs the brokenness in a way that makes the object more beautiful, and even more unique than it was prior to being broken. Instead of hiding the scars it makes a feature of them." ( kintsugihope.com ) I am broken. We are all broken in different ways. Yet, when we hand our brokenness over to Jesus he creates something even more beautiful with our lives. We don't need to pretend that we are perfect, we don't need to pretend we have it all together. With him, we can be who we are and ...

Dear Friends, I've been meditating this week on one particular verse which has both encouraged and challenged me. King David had it in his heart to build a temple for God. However, God told him that this was not for him to do, but his son, Solomon would be the one to build it instead. David spent time preparing and planning for the temple. In 1 Chronicles 28:20 he says this to Solomon: “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. He will see to it that all the work related to the Temple of the Lord is finished correctly." (NLT) David was Solomon's encourager. He wasn't bitter that someone else was getting to do what he had dreamed of. Instead he demonstrated his support of Solomon. 1. Be strong and courageous  This was not so much about physical strength, but rather about staying power, persevering, not giving up. I wonder if Solomon felt...

Dear Friends, If you read my blog post at the beginning of November, you'll know that I had made the decision that for this month I was going to thank God daily for three things he had blessed me with from the previous day.  I wonder if any of you also took up the challenge and if so how was it for you? I was chatting with my Mum about my challenge and she shared with me how she had been doing a similar thing for a few years now. She took it a step further and had been writing the things she was thankful for in a book. I thought it was a great idea so I have been doing the same. I had a spare notebook at home which has become "My Book of Thanksgiving". I highly recommend you find someone mature in their faith who you can talk openly and honestly with about your Christian journey. We can learn so much from one another. We can also provide each other with encouragement and support. I don't have a great memory, so it was definitely a good idea for me to writ...

Dear Friends, Occasionally after preaching a message on a Sunday morning at church I will have people come up to me and say "I don't know how you can do what you do.  I never could." But the thing is, no-one is more surprised than me that I am standing up preaching to a crowd of people. You see, very few people today know what I was like growing up, but I do, and it's nothing less than miraculous that I am able to stand in front of a group of people sharing God's truths. As a teenager I was painfully, painfully shy.  I had a handful of friends, but was so shy around the rest of my peers that I could hardly open my mouth and I only spoke in class when I was pushed to by one of my teachers. Although I love reading and writing, I found some English subject lessons quite hard-going. In English language we were expected, every so often, to give a 3 minute speech to our fellow class mates. Now, this might as well have been 30 minutes as 3 to me.  I struggled ...

Dear Friends, During our holiday in Spain we spent a weekend in Barcelona and the highlight of my weekend was our visit to Barcelona's Cathedral - Basilica de la Sagrada Familia.  Although work began on it in the 1800s, it is not expected to be completed until 2026. It is an incredible building and has been designed chiefly by the architect, Antonio Gaudi (also known as God's Architect).  It was amazing to wander around this building, but it became more meaningful and special when we listened to our English speaking tour guide.  From what I gathered Gaudi was a man of faith, whose vision was to give his best to God and to bring glory to God through his work.  For his time he was an innovator because rather than having everything about God within the building he chose to have them on display on the outside of the building, his aim being for people to look and learn about the teachings of the gospels and the...

Dear Friends, These last few weeks have been busy with preparations and planning, firstly for the Youth Camp that both children have been on this week, and which Jason also went on as one of the camp leaders, and then a day or so after they get back we are off to Spain for a holiday.  So there's been much washing to do, sorting out what needs to be packed, leaving keys with our neighbour for them to take care of our fish, giving our rabbits a holiday at Jason's parents home, making sure our flights are booked, that we have car hire whilst in Spain, leaving our home in a reasonable state to come home to (strangely enough I'm the only one who seems to see this as a priority. Neither of the kids could understand why I asked them the morning they went to camp to make sure their bedrooms were tidy before they left!)  Although there is much to do, I am glad that I'm not solely reasonable for everything.  All the planning and preparations pay off in the end because it mea...